And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. (Heb. 1:3)

The phrase “He made purification of sins” sounds a bit odd to our modern ears. We know what forgiveness of sins is. We know that sin is “missing the mark” (Greek: hamartia). Sin is coming up short of God’s glory (Rom. 3:23), transgressing God’s law (1 John 3:4); sin is an offense against God, as theologian Aquinas wrote. In what sense do we need purification of our sins?

Whatever purification of sin means, our passage tells us that Christ is superior to all else because He is the one and only purifier of sin. And that is one more thing that contributes to His greatness. In the book of Hebrews, we find this a repeated theme. The idea of purification is rooted in the OT sacrificial system. The Bible pictures holiness in earthly terms as being pure and spotlessly clean, in contrast with all that is not holy, which is viewed as not clean or dirty. To make something clean (that is, to sanctify it) is to move it from mundane everyday life and set it apart for God’s special use. It is like washing one’s hands before eating, or in the ancient world, washing one’s feet before entering a home for a banquet (they wore sandals, so their feet were in constant contact with dirt).

So the imagery communicates that to serve the Lord, one must be ceremonially cleansed. Nowhere is this more important than with the Jewish temple, where the priests were to meet God with sacrifices:

And according to the Law … all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. (Heb 9:22-23)

The term “copies” refers to the temple and the entire sacrificial system. Further, in comparing Christ’s superiority to the Jewish priesthood, the Law was woefully inadequate for providing permanent sanctification (or making anything holy):

Otherwise, would [animal] not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? (Heb. 10:2)

Now, in Christ, everything has changed—like a photo of a person being discarded because the person in the picture is now present. And the difference is enormous; Christ as our perfect High Priest has made the sacrifice for our sins, to permanently set us apart as acceptable to God, giving us full, open, and welcome access into His holy presence:

Since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Heb 10:21–22)

How great is that! God has invited us into His holy temple, as it were, into His throne room. Without His forgiving us of our sin, we have no right or confidence to bring our worship to Him. Our worship would be at best a fraud, purely going through outward motions—and completely unacceptable to God. But because Christ has purified us of our sin, nothing can hinder our worship, except unbelief in what He has done. We are fully accepted because He has set us apart; He has sanctified us; He has cleansed us from the dirt and disqualification of sin. Yes, praise Him forever, for He has “made purification of sins.”

Lord, I praise You for purifying me from my sins, once and for all, forever. As Your Word says for me to do, I come to You with the full assurance that you welcome my worship.